The article says with their current buildings, they have space for 500,000 students, but only have 403,000 attending. They need to do something if they have a $1B deficit. CPS must be mismanaging their funds. Their academic performance is bad and their per-pupil spending is higher than in neighboring suburban areas.

By closing the inefficient buildings, the district can save quite a bit of money. There will of course be complaints because many of the closings will be in minority neighborhoods meaning that parents have to go farther to get to their kids' school. No easy answers....

I agree that there aren't easy answers, but I would be cautious using operating capacity numbers. My mother's school district where she teaches is at around 70% of it's "capacity" and yet they don't have enough desks for all the children in her 5th grade room, and she has 30+ students every year with no teacher's aid (there aren't enough to go around).

I just thought it was a pretty staggering move. I agree that some schools probably need to be closed, but you don't rack up $1 bil in deficient from buildings alone. I'd love to see the breakdown of their budget over the last 5-10 years.

My first grammar school is on that list...Lafayette. I was sad to see that. That was the closest school to where we lived and, as it is, we had to walk about 5 blocks to get there. The next closest school would be a good 10 blocks away..I don't know how kids will get there if they don't have parents who can drive them. I'm hoping they will offer bus service but still, that is a large amount of schools to close. I am glad my kids go to private school but I feel terrible for all the kids who will have to deal with the over crowding in schools that will have to take in the overflow of kids. I can't see how that can benefit their learning.

Has there been a trend in Chicago of charter schools (i.e., not managed by the city school board) opening up?

Originally Posted by spiderlashes5000

Yes! And they aren't any better than the piblic schools here so it's surprising that they continue to open them . Although, charter schools here can range from good to very poor. It's a matter of looking into how well the students are doing at each school individually. I still think the charter schools as a whole have been a failure and students in those schools are still performing poorly on standardized tests.

Has there been a trend in Chicago of charter schools (i.e., not managed by the city school board) opening up?

Originally Posted by spiderlashes5000

Yes! And they aren't any better than the piblic schools here so it's surprising that they continue to open them . Although, charter schools here can range from good to very poor. It's a matter of looking into how well the students are doing at each school individually. I still think the charter schools as a whole have been a failure and students in those schools are still performing poorly on standardized tests.

Originally Posted by lifescout

The school board probably isn't worried about an overcrowding problem, then.